DeGeneres, 57, posted a video Thursday of the Today show host, also 57, interviewing Fifty Shades of Grey's Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson. It's a familiar sight (the interview is actually from the costars' Feb. 6 appearance), but when the camera flashes to Lauer, well ... to quote Ellen, "Just watch."

With its explicit promise of hot stars and kinky sex, I'm not sure why Fifty Shades of Grey wasn't in 3D, but let's call that a missed opportunity. What the film gets spot-on is the essence of E.L. James's wildly successful stab at Twilight fan fiction: the frisson of excitement when naïve college senior Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) embarks on an affair with wealthy CEO Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). It's too bad the movie also imports James's atrociously written prose and bizarre sexual politics, but then, no one buys a Fifty Shades ticket for the dialogue.